Published 4:55 pm, Thursday, July 14, 2016

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In response to the spate of active shooter situations across the country — most recently in Dallas, Orlando, San Bernardino, and Chattanooga — House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas ) has introduced legislation that will directly assist local first responders across the country.

The attacks that unfolded have highlighted the need for Congress to take further action. Under this bill, first responders can apply for grants to prevent, prepare for, and respond to active shooter situations, including lone-wolf attacks and other terror attacks.

Chairman McCaul: “The pace of terror and shooting attacks in the United States, and here in my home state of Texas, has sadly increased to an unprecedented level. They are becoming so common that we now seem to refer to the attacks by just naming the city in which they occurred; Garland, Dallas, Orlando, San Bernadino, Chattanooga. Terrorist threats inside our borders are not relenting. We must ensure our communities and first responders have the tools and training they need to better prepare for and protect against these continuously evolving terrorist threats.”

Key points of the Community Counterterrorism Preparedness Act include:

The bill authorizes $39 million for emergency response providers in major metropolitan areas to conduct training and exercises to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the most likely terrorist attack scenarios, including active shooters.

Eligible recipients include emergency response providers, including law enforcement, fire fighters, EMS, and emergency management in any jurisdiction that currently receives Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) funding and any jurisdiction that previously received UASI funding.